Inimmune named one of the top 8 Montana startups to watch

Three Missoula companies and two others in western Montana have made the Montana High Tech Business Alliance’s list of “Startups to Watch” in 2018 due to their growth potential and other factors such as whether they are on track to land major clients or enter new markets and add a significant number of jobs.

The Alliance, a nonprofit advocacy organization that works to promote the technology sector in the state, consulted experts at several venture capital firms, the Montana Manufacturing Center and the Blackstone LaunchPads at the University of Montana and Montana State University.

“Montana has been ranked one of the top five states for startups for the last five years in a row,” said Christina Henderson, executive director of the Montana High Tech Business Alliance. “Technology has removed geographic barriers to growth, and these startups are indicative of the opportunities tech brings to a landscape like Montana.”

DermaXon of Missoula, a biotech startup with an emphasis on drug discovery in dermatology.

Elebase.io in Whitefish, a backend as-a-service and content management system with geospatial capabilities.

GeoFli of Missoula, a company that has developed a location-based marketing software.

Inimmune of Missoula, a biotech company focused on the discovery and development of new therapeutics for allergy, autoimmunity, infectious disease, and cancer.

PinnaCal, LLC of Corvallis, a company that provides calibration services and metrology to the aviation industry.

Sellout of Bozeman, a firm that developed a ticketing software that entirely disincentivizes scalping.

Triple Tree of Bozeman, a software development and product management company.

Inimmune recently received a $176,000 grant from the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease to develop new drugs for treating and preventing upper respiratory tract infections, including influenza.

“The properties of our novel and proprietary immune stimulating compounds provide a unique opportunity to treat patients rapidly and with high effectiveness,” said Inimmune co-founder, president and CEO Jay Evans. “In addition, this therapeutic platform has potential applications in many disease areas including treatment of allergy and cancer.”

DermaXon was founded by two active research scientists at the University of Montana, Fanny Astruc-Diaz and Philippe Diaz, who are co-inventors of dozens of patents. The company recently hired their first CEO, Michelle Huie, the founder of a fast-growing compression sock company called Vim & Vigr.